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“It’s spring, and beautiful tones of yellow, in all shapes and sizes, return once more to the forest floor.” – Ed Lehming Once more, spring starts and stalls. The warm days of April have been replaced by a particularly cool and wet May. But, there is no going back, a spring warm up is inevitable and the forest wildflowers continue to progress. The regular schedule this year is a bit messed up… Read More
“Simple, yet complex, the flower of the Trout Lily continues to bring me joy as they appear in greater numbers daily. I can hardly decide which I like best.” – Ed Lehming On my nearly daily excursions into the local forests, every day gets a bit brighter and, supposedly, a bit warmer, and more and more wildflower blossoms appear along the trailside. The leafy patches of Trout Lily now offer more and… Read More
“Delicate yellow flowers fill the forest floor, nodding timidly in the soft spring sunshine.” – Ed Lehming There is something wonderful about Trout Lilies, also known as Dogtooth Violet, though I prefer Trout Lily, since I don’t see any resemblance to violets in their form. They are one of several spring flowers that I look forward to every year as they seem to appear overnight. They are also not fond of cold,… Read More
“Day by day, the compacted leaf litter of the winter is pushed up by spring flowers, each in their time, brightening the once dull brown forest with new life and colour.” – Ed Lehming I do believe that spring is my favourite time of year. I enjoy the daily transformation of the seemingly lifeless forest to a wonderland of colour and vitality. This year started off earlier than expected and then slowed… Read More
“Draped in leafy cloaks, the Mayapples looked like tiny phantoms, gathering on the forest floor.” – Ed Lehming I could not not resist this image of an emerging Mayapple that I found last week. As I scanned the forest floor, I noticed a dark patch of foliage in the distance. Upon investigation I found it to be a large colony of Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum), hundreds of them occupying an hollow. Mayapples around… Read More
“In springtime, the changes happen so quickly, you really need to enjoy things in the moment, and then the moment is gone, till next time.” – Ed Lehming So far, this spring has offered many surprises, some longer lasting than others, and some, I’m still waiting on. In my many years of hiking the local forest trails, I don’t believe I have seen such a profusion of Red Trilliums, and with the… Read More
“The forest comes alive with wildflowers, each in their turn, offering an endless bouquet of beauty.” – Ed Lehming As I write this, 5 centimeters (2 inches) of snow have fallen, burying what yesterday was a gorgeous display of wildflowers, but that is April in my part of the world. Where mere weeks ago I was hiking on ice wearing just a tee shirt, yesterday’s blossoms lay beneath a blanket of white…. Read More
“After few days of of showing their bright pink faces to the warming sun, the Spring Beauties take a rest, allowing the cool spring rains to refresh them till the sun returns again.” – Ed Lehming It’s mid-April and every day can’t be warm and sun-filled. These cool and rainy days are all part of the growing cycle and it has been, till now, quite dry in the local forests, so the… Read More
“Cool April hikes bring such joy. There is always something new, not always obvious or evident, but when you look around new surprises and revelations always present themselves.” – Ed Lehming The spring that began so mild and warm has settled back to a bit more normal pattern of cool nights and misty days. The plants and flowers that seemed so accelerated have slowed down as well. This has been a good… Read More
“Every spring, the cycle of growth begins in a similar way: flat and dull leaf litter, the first small green shoots, followed by the bright and tiny faces of the Spring Beauties. So hard to spot, but a joy when found. Spring has arrived to the forest floor.” – Ed Lehming This tiny, often missed, spring ephemeral is what I look for as soon as the temperatures warm. It’s the first flower… Read More
“From the compacted blanket of last year’s leaves, bright and beautiful wildflowers erupt, pushing aside the reminders of what was, and revealing was it to be.” – Ed Lehming Continuing the theme of this year’s early spring wildflowers, I present a beautiful pink cluster of early Hepatica. For this image, I got down low to the ground. My goal was to show the blossoms rising above the leaf litter and show some… Read More
“Spring is a time of firsts . There is always a first blossom, a first leaf, or a first new growth. After months of watching things fade away, firsts are so refreshing.” – Ed Lehming Last week, as I was out taking photos of an early blooming patch of Hepatica. Since I was shooting with my macro lens, I was up close to the ground and paying close attention to the area… Read More
“Do not assume that tender equates to weakness. There is often great resilience in things that seem delicate at first sight.” – Ed Lehming The natural world continues to astound me. On the final day of March, I came across a patch of Hepatica, also known as Mayflower locally. Well, Mayflower seems to be ‘Marchflower’ this year. I had found this small patch and took a quick photo with my zoom lens,… Read More
“Always something new and interesting. Nature offers so many exciting possibilities” – Ed Lehming It’s time for the next wave of spring blossoms to make an appearance. I’ve been watching the little clump of leaves for the past few days, waiting for the blooms and was surprised to see blossoms already. It seems a few days of warmer weather makes a difference. Squirrel Corn is an interesting plant, related to Dutchman’s Breeches,… Read More
“Nature’s gatherings; nothing by chance; each with purpose” – Ed Lehming As I spend more time on the trails, more and more patterns become noticeable to me, what once seemed random, begins to fit into patterns. Such is the case with early spring blossoms, one follows the next in a steady, often cautious progression. It begins with the first few leaves unfurling from the forest litter of leaves, each plant slowly reaching… Read More
“Cool spring breezes blew past me and set the wildflowers dancing, like purple paint brushes on a canvas of green leaves.” – Ed Lehming Some things look so much more interesting if you look at them differently. We are so used to seeing things as stationary, even our eyes compensate for movement. So when that compensation is removed by the eye of the camera a new view appears. I wanted to capture… Read More
“The soft spring breezes played with the tiny flowers of the plant causing then to dance and twinkle in the light.” – Ed Lehming As I’ve said a few times in the past, one of the great things about being a photographer is having an eye for the fine details. I’ve found myself becoming an astute observer, noticing things that I would have passed by a few years ago. These smallish plants… Read More
“Delicate white flowers hover above the deep green leaves as the next wave of spring flowers emerges, replacing trilliums and bloodroot. The canopy overhead thickens, and filters the light that makes it to the forest floor. Starflowers now add drops of brilliant white into the deepening gloom of the undergrowth.” – Ed Lehming As the trilliums mature and fade to soft pinks and magenta, the forest floor is once more transformed. The… Read More
“Along forest paths, bright wildflowers dance in the gentle breeze, and an ever changing dance of colours, fragrances, and textures.” – Ed Lehming This spring has been a joy for me, as I really enjoy the multitude of spring ephemerals. Those first few green leaves and bright flowers are such a welcoming sight after months of snow and dull days. What I have found most enjoyable is the experience of discovering new… Read More
“Life and colour emerged from the ground with such abundance, you could fairly hear the leaves rustling with activity.” – Ed Lehming I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love this time of year, when wildflowers erupt from the carpet of dull brown leaves. Within a few days, the dull and seemingly lifeless forest floor is festooned with colour. Among the first, in my area, are the delicate Sharp… Read More
“Barely visible on first glance, it’s alien form surprises the first time viewer” – Ed Lehming It is so nice to finally make images with no snow. The past few weeks have been cool, wet, and miserable, with more rain than I care for. But, the rain melted the snow and ice away and provided lots of moisture to promote plant growth. Over the past few days, the sun has been out… Read More
“Even the tiniest of flowers can have the toughest roots.” ― Shannon Mullen Wildflowers constantly amaze me, in their endless forms and the environments they thrive it. The columbine above, is a native to Ontario and this particular plant was growing from a thin crack in the bedrock. I suppose there was just enough organic mater accumulated in that crack to create the rich soil the columbine prefers and a seed from nearby… Read More
“Ugly or beautiful, it is the little creatures that make the world go round. We should celebrate and appreciated them in all their wonderful diversity.” ― Dave Goulson Inevitably, if you make enough images of flowers outdoors, nature dictates that a bug will be in one of those images. That was the case last weekend, as I was photographing the many beautiful hepaticas that had just started blooming. Just as I was about… Read More
“The places of quiet are going away, the churches, the woods, the libraries. And it is only in silence we can hear the voice inside of us which gives us true peace.” ― James Rozoff There is peace in the forest, a peace that I dearly need in this busy world. In the forest, I can participate in the natural cycles, I can anticipate the next species of wildflower to bloom, or to… Read More
“It would seem from this fact, that man is naturally a wild animal, and that when taken from the woods, he is never happy in his natural state, ’till he returns to them again.” ― Benjamin Rush I am happy to be returning to the forest, which I’m never really away from for long. However, weather and work, have teamed up to make my brief forays into the local forest quite difficult. So,… Read More
“Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.” – Jeremy Bentham What looked like delicate thistles from a distance turned out to be Knapweed. The dunes and roadside around Sauble Beach were filled with them. It’s yet another flowering plant that I seem to have overlooked in the past. I suppose it’s because I am deliberately looking for new wildflowers to photograph and… Read More
“Take one flower that you like and get lots of them. And don’t try to ‘arrange’ them. It’s surprisingly hard to do a flower arrangement the way a florist does one. Instead, bunch them all together or put them in a series of small vases all down the table. “ – Ina Garten As I finished my studio work with a few local wildflowers, I stuck them in a vase, to eventually… Read More
“Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.” – Georges Bernanos Have you noticed the summer shift to purple and yellow? The pattern repeats. There is a gradual shift from pinks to purples and yellows. Thistles, bergamot, vervain for purples, yellow coneflower, sunflower, wood sorrel, and sunflower for yellow. It’s a definite shift in colours and the pollinators,… Read More
“With caps of regal purple, the delicate blossoms gently sway, on the tide of warm a summer breeze. The sweet aroma of nectar, wafts in the air, an elixir for butterflies, wasps, and bees.” – Ed Lehming In the meadow just up the street from my home, there is a patch of beautiful purple Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum sibericum), a hybrid of native wildflower, more common in warmer climes. However, I have the… Read More
“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain. “ – Henry David Thoreau There is no shortage of insect life on the Queen Anne’s Lace this summer. It seems to be especially popular to various bugs and beetles. Here, a Japanese Beetle tours the outer flowerettes, I’m assuming looking for a meal of nectar…. Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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